Staff Photos

Recently I was asked if I would like to help take photos of the staff members where I work.

The previous photographer could not make it this time so I stepped in help. I readily agreed to help out as this would introduce me to two new things:

Working in a studio environment

Interaction with people who were having their photo taken

I cannot say that I got a pure white background on each shot! Looking at the shots taken before mine, the pure white may not have been an immediate concern. I was more concerned that the shot were focused on the eye and were as sharp as I could get them.

I was being called a ‘perfectionist’ as I took a number of shots per person. This was really a safety net for myself, at least one of the shots would be sharp as I wanted it.

However, some of the shots came out great the first time. Once I hit my stride I was able to take one shot which I and the staff member were happy with.

Until those who wear glasses came in. Ah… ok.. Catch lights look good in the eye but not reflected in glasses. One chap was good enough to remove his glasses and was happy with his shot. Others I had to ask to move their head slightly to minimize the reflection, the studio was small so the softboxes would reflect from everywhere.

I completed 42 shots in all, threw them into Lightroom 4 to check each for sharpness and brought the whites up a bit to try to get near to a white background as possible.

I have heard back today that the shots were great! I have another session soon for more shots.
In conclusion, everyone on the shoot was very accommodating, from the guy who set up the studio lighting for me to all those who had their photo taken. They ranged from, the talkers, the non smiley people, the multitude of glasses, to the one who asked me to count him in so he could look at the camera from a looking down position.

One person commented that they had never had their photo taken by a professional photographer. High praise indeed for me which I crashed and burned in fantastic style by saying ‘You still haven’t..’